Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-05-28
ANOTHER VIEW.
THE LANDLORDS SIDE OF The
IRISH QUESTION.
Laws for Ireland, and Present
Rights Under Them.

The well-known writer and scholar,
George Tallman, thus writes upon the
question that is so strongly agitating the
politics of England, and giving the land
lords side of the situation
The y" Irish Loyal and Patriotic Union y
is sending out circulars in defense of its
positions. The fact that every American
paper, no matter how conservative it NAV
| be on American questions, processes the
warmest sympathy with Mr.. Parnelrs de-
mand that Irish rents should be halved,
makes it important that the landlords side
should be heard.
The circulars referred to give statement
of the privileges now enjoyed by the Irish
tenants. These were of gradual growth up
| to 1870, but since that time they have
advanced with revolutionary rapidly Be
fore 1860 the rack-rent system had pre-
vailed in almost unlimited severity. The
tenant was practically liable to eviction at
any time, and as he was usually without
either place to go to or means to get there
he was willing to make any bargain on
condition that the landlords agent would
permit him to remain were he was. II
was in this way that the tenant frequently
promised yearly rent equal to the fee
simple value of the land. He of course fell
| hopelessly in arrears, and it was not worth
his while to try to make anything or save
| anything, since possession would immedi-
ately pass to the landlord. The result was
demoralizing, and in 1860 an Act was
passed by which the tenant could not.be
evicted for non payment of rent unless one
years rent was in arrears. This gave the
tenants little leeway but did not help the
more hopeless cases.
LAND ACT OF 1870.
In 1870 the first great Land Act was
passed. BY this measure the yearly ten
ant who was disturbed in his holding for
causes other than the non payment of rent
must be paid by the landlord: (a) Full
compensation for all improvements made
by himself or his predecessors, such as I'M
exhausted manures. permanent buildings,
| and reclamation of waste lands; (6) COM
pensation for disturbance. The compensa-
| ton for disturbance might, in certain cases,
| be Ixed as high as seven years rental.
Practically, however, there was very little
danger that the Courts would ever demand
the maximum permitted by the law. By
the same Act the tenants who were evicted
for non payment of rent must be COM
pensated for whatever improvements they
had made on their premises.
THE THREE Esp OF 1881.
The next great step was taken in 1881.
| This was the result of the Land League cam
paign for the three fs" 1t accorded to
the Irish tenant "fixity of tenure fair
rent and free sale" BY the first of
| these privileges the tenant was secured pos
| session of his land forever, subject to a
revision of rent by the Courts every fifteen
years. In this periodical revision the
Courts were not to raise his rent on account
of any improvements which the tenant
had made, but simply on account of the
! unearned increment in the value of the
land The fair rent" which was accorded
the tenant was not what the land would
bring in the open market, but what the
| Land Commission might see fit to assess.
! This Commission has in its practice usually
allowed the tenant reduction OF about Is
| per cent. from former rates. By the free
sale " proviso the tenant who wished to
give up his holding was permitted to sell it
to the highest bidder.
PURCHASING THEIR HOLDINGS.
Still another clause of this Land Law
Act of 1881 was as follows 1.-The Land
| Commission, out of the moneys in their
hands, may, if satisfied with the security.
advance to the tenants, for the purpose OF
enabling them to purchase their holdings
any sum not exceeding three
| fourths OF the principal Any ad-
vance made by the Land Commission So
shall be repaid by an annuity for thirty
| five years of five pounds for every hundred
pounds of such advance"
Thus the tenant who paid five per cent.
interest on the price of his farm could in
thirty-fve years discharge both interest
and principal Suppose that some Ameri-
can State should offer to lend money to its
! rpntincr or -b-1-, Cd
the same terms What cry of Social
ism would be raised!
LAND PURCHASE ACT OF 1885.
But in Ireland the State has gone 81, D
further The Land Purchase Act of 1855
extended the time of payment from thirty
| five to forty-nine years, and lowered the
rate Of interest. The writer has been IN.
able to consult tbe7Act..itself, but one ofthe
| UniOnist circulars before him says that
1.-The annual payment of "a for every 410O
| borrowed covers both principal and in
terest." The circular proceeds to argue
that If tenant already paying statutory
rent of ESQ agrees TO buy from bis landlord
at twenty years purchase Tor f1000), the
| Government will lend him the money, his
rent will at once cease and he will pay,
not $50, but $40 yearly, for forty-nine
years, and then become the owner of his
| uOluIDS, II ct Vi rent. i Ills Is SOOQ maine
mates, but not necessarily good reasoning.
| Robert Giffen, in his famous essay on the
wealth of Great Britain, estimates the capt.
talized value of land, not at twenty years
purchase, but at thirty years purchase. SO
that the tenant would have to pay $50 a
year instead of GAO. Nevertheless, even
this provision
| Is MARVELoUSLY LIBERAL.
And we may understand what Mr.. Cham
berlain meant when, at mis- speech at
Hawick in January he said The Irish
tenant is in position which is more favor
able than that of any agricultural tenant
throughout the whole of Europe >
There are thousands and tens of-thousands
of tenants throughout Scotland and Eng
land who would receive as an inestimable
boon those opportunities which the Irish
tenant so scornfully rejects
The Conservatives of England call the
attention of their American critics to the
fact that the fair rent privilege conferred
by the 1881 Act (which broke down old
contracts of tenancy could not have been
granted under the Constitution of the
United States. They warn Americans lest,
| in support of Mr.. ParnelPs demands, they
do but teach instructions which, being
| taught shall return to plague the in
ventor"